Salamanca Sept.12: Morante entertains and Marcos triumphs with galaches
‘La Glorieta’, Salamanca’s plaza de toros, today experienced its first ‘no hay billetes’ corrida (admittedly under Covid capacity conditions) for 10 years. The reason - a singular cartel resulting from Morante de la Puebla’s insistence on performing with Galache bulls if he was to appear in Salamanca’s feria. The local ganadero had not fielded a string of bulls for toreo a pie this century.
It was a shame that the bulls, all from Francisco Galache’s Vega-Villar herd, were not en tipo, their weights ranging from 518 to 582 kilos - far too heavy. Low animals carrying a lot of weight at the front of their bodies, today’s galaches stumbled a lot on their front legs, the majority trotting rather than charging in their faenas. Five of the six had the classic ‘patas blancas’ appearance. The ganadero commented that there had been little time to prepare them for their appearance in the bullring as, a month or so ago, the beasts had been destined for the slaughterhouse.
2021, in taurine terms, will probably be remembered as Morante’s year. The sevillano has made a point of mixing his encounters with the usual four or six Domecq ganaderos favoured by today’s figuras with bulls of different encastes. In doing this, it seems to have changed his approach towards toreo; he is less ready to give up on afternoons and much more focused than in the past on doing well. Today, he entertained us regally on both his bulls.
The first he met with a series of majestic verónicas, closed with a media and a beautiful serpentina. Chicuelinas and a larga followed the animal’s sole vara. By the tercio de banderillas, the galache was moving at a trot, and Morante made use of this to bring off stylish single slow muletazos, some very good indeed, in a patchy faena de más a menos largely due to the sevillano going on too long. Six pinchazos were given before the toro dropped to the ground for good, Morante returning to the callejón to a division.
Morante surprised everyone by greeting his second galache with faroles de rodillas, losing his montera in the first encounter. The rest of the opening capework consisted of old-style high verónicas, and he took the bull to the horse with galleo. The spectators were delighted when Morante gave way to requests and decided to place the third pair of banderillas, which he did spectacularly well, earning an ovation.
In the faena, the bull was increasingly incapable of running through passes, but somehow Morante managed to construct series and keep the spectators entertained with the style and variety of his muletazos. A pinchazo and estocada were followed by the crowd petitioning for two ears, the president opting for one and receiving a bronca as a result.
The local matador Alejandro Marcos was also apparently on the cartel due to Morante’s recommendation. I was looking forward to seeing him again, as I’d witnessed several strong performances by him at Santander (including his alternativa) and knew him to be amongst the best of the younger generation of matadors. He began strongly with his first galache, meeting the bull in the centre of the ring for verónicas and leading it to the picador with walking chicuelinas. His banderillero, Victor García, injured his ankle escaping from the first pair of banderillas and took no further part in the proceedings. The faena was dedicated to the public and to the heavens, and Alejandro concentrated on performing stylishly with a further weak bull, achieving series on occasions. Two pinchazos to finish saw his work end with saludos.
The final brown-and-white bull was the surprise of the afternoon. The heaviest of the string, it nevertheless proved to be the only animal capable of charging through a faena. Young Marcos made the most of it, beginning with lovely verónicas and a media, and a quite of tafalleras and a further media verónica. Álvaro Montes, substituting for Victor García, placed a great pair of sticks. Then Marcos dedicated the faena to Morante, going on to produce sublime, classical style passes, taking the bull from a distance initially and intelligently resting it in between series. The bulk of the faena favoured the bull’s right horn. An estoconazo led to a merited award of two ears and a salida a hombros. Alejandro had once again shown that he deserves more contracts.
The other espada today was El Juli, who, in contrast to yesterday’s performance at Valladolid, made little impact. His toreo relies on obtaining series of passes, but he didn’t have the material to do that with today and seemed unable to adopt the other matadors’ approach of style over tandas. Interestingly, he blamed himself for today’s performance, saying he hadn’t felt positive about it from the beginning. His first bull should have been sent back to the corrales, but Julián asked for the tercio to be changed instead, and the same occurred with his second animal. The madrileño’s swordwork today was very poor as well and his performances ended with silence and a division of opinions respectively.
As Morante de la Puebla summarised the afternoon at its end, “It’s been a lovely afternoon of bullfighting […] There’s been a lot of romanticism and a ganadería that’s been completely forgotten. It’s had its virtues and its defects, but I think a very important afternoon for Salamanca has taken place.”